1) We're going to get higher-quality (remastered) versions of at least some of the albums, which will be particularly excellent for the earlier works (especially Fright Night, which has noticeably lower audio quality than the subsequent releases of the era)

2) The new album art has a lot of potential to be amazing for collections. Already, Strato leaked previews of the re-issue album art for Destiny and the Visions of Europe Live; they look great.

3) We're going to get bonus material, which hopefully (although it is not yet certain) will include some previously unreleased tracks and/or demos and/or revised versions

4) For many collectors and Strato fans in general, they will at last have the opportunity to own physical copies of albums that, as of Aug. 15, 2016, are very hard to find (some extremely so). Highly ironically for me, I literally completed my collection of all of Stratovarius' studio albums, singles, compilation albums and live albums on Aug. 15, the same day this announcement occurred. On Aug. 15, I finally acquired Black Night (the only single I had been missing) and the new Best Of album, and now the big re-issue shall occur. I'm extremely glad about this, though, because now so many fans will have the opportunity to have access to physical copies of these albums, especially those that now are rare, with high-quality versions of the songs.

For the reissue of Destiny, in particular, we're going to be getting an amazing bonus disc of VISIONS OF DESTINY. Up until now, the Visions of Destiny album was widely regarded as one of the most popular, if not the most renown, unofficial bootlegs of a Stratovarius live performance, and copies of this unofficial album had been available in a limited way on the Internet. Now, Stratovarius is incorporating what started as an unofficial bootleg into its lineup of official releases! This also means that Visions of Destiny likely will have a remastering, such that we will finally gain access to an official, high-quality rendition of this album.

Also, it's great that the new artwork for Destiny features a woman reminiscent of she who was included on the original Destiny cover, but with her emerging from within a water sphere that upon closer inspection appears to be an eye, symbolically appropriate for the incorporation of VISIONS of Destiny as part of the re-release.

Six aspects of the re-release campaign are as of yet unclear:

1) Whether the re-release will just cover studio albums and live albums, or whether singles and compilation albums also will be covered;

2) Whether all language-specific or region-specific (particularly Japanese bonus) tracks will be included for the re-releases;

3) The cut-off year for re-releases, i.e. which album will be considered so recently released that that album and subsequent albums will not be re-released this way (for example, it seems highly unlikely that Eternal, which was released in 2015 and hence is of high audio quality and is widely accessible, will be reissued this way, but perhaps it will be);

4) Regardless of the cut-off year mentioned in Point 3, whether Elements Parts 1 and 2, which were re-released in 2014 as remastered versions for a special release, will again be re-released as part of this reissuing initiative;

5) Whether the Revolution Renaissance demo from 2008 that was never officially released will be officially issued for the first time and

6) Whether the amazingly rare Demo from 1987 will be included as part of the re-releases.

We live in exciting times for Stratovarius. The re-release campaign is going to be great. I can't wait to listen to the re-releases of Destiny and Visions of Europe!

The only album I am missing from my collection (not counting singles, because I do not have the funds to go on that tedious quest) is Fright Night. It's always too expensive every time I check on eBay or Amazon. It'll be nice to have this rerelease, but I still want the original release, too.

Another thought on the reissue campaign: As fans seeking to expand their Stratovarius collections likely would want in advance to know of all there is to collect, here are the best catalogue guides currently available for Stratovarius; none of these are absolutely comprehensive, but some of them are quite close:

2) Wonders of Twilight's Stratovarius discography page, which while updated only through the release of Nemesis in 2013 contains some album release versions not covered by Encyclopedia Metallum's list and also has additional pictures of the releases, which is especially helpful for recognizing the differences between different versions of the same album or single or EP: https://wot-v6.rhcloud.com/?page_id=50

3) The Discogs page for Stratovarius, which while updated through 2016 provides almost, but not quite as many details as the Wonders of Twilight list for the releases through 2013; HOWEVER, this site also allows users to check on current availability of releases for sale by fellow Discogs users, which is directly helpful for collection expansion (For example, I acquired the very rare Stratovarius singles Future Shock and Break the Ice through this site): https://www.discogs.com/artist/324356-S ... ius?page=1

4) Stratovarius' own discography page on its website, which actually is missing a few releases, especially compilation albums, and which does not include demos, promotional releases or regional variants: http://www.stratovarius.com/pages/disco.php

I've completed their discography long time ago and I've bought it twice, one for collection and one for listening sessions.
Anyway, I think that I will buy those remastered/expanded version for collection, of course, and for throwing money to the band, since they are not earning nothing from ages (from their back cataloge,of course).

But there's one thing on which I've dreamt all this years, the instrumental tracks and isolated voice tracks as bonus CDs. This will make me whole.

Yo, Motha-faka... I can't be the only one that doesn't have a clue what the fuck you ramble about half the time. I think you just made 8 posts about the sound mixing, but it's hard to tell. If that is the case... 8 posts is a bit much.

Italians are half stupid, yes, that's not a secret, I believe. But half italians means the southern ones, here, in the north, we're pretty intelligent, instead. There's something wrong in the south part of anyplace, I believe.
And I will buy the albums, as I said before, remastered or not, I don't give a fuck since I'll buy for collecting purpose.
And well, Jussila know his work, I believe, better than you for sure(I can't conceive how you dare to post the shit you post).
But I know you have no money and you can't understand.
Return in the shadows, bitch.

we tried that, we begged jens to do it and eventually he did it, the forum was cool again for a bit, but then this dumbass returned and I think most people just had enough, the forum is virtually dead thanks to him.
this space belongs to his endless converstations with himself....sadly.

we tried that, we begged jens to do it and eventually he did it, the forum was cool again for a bit, but then this dumbass returned and I think most people just had enough, the forum is virtually dead thanks to him.
this space belongs to his endless converstations with himself....sadly.

The only chance we have to kick this retarded boy out of this place is, actually, kill him or make him commit suicide.
He's like cancer, he kills whatever he touch, forum, himself, his sexual life, music and so on.

One person says that the remastered ones will be better quality with extra artwork and if i understand what you are trying to say is that the sound might not be as good or it will not make any difference as what has been done up to now.

I guess I might probably wait to see whomever buys something of the remastered collection will say for now.

Sound is important for me more than artwork.

You, if you were a starter what options would you choose ? Did any of them were done in LP's and is the sound better ?

and if you are sound engineer, i dont have idea how fucking you dont have a idea of nothing

Hi,

Na, you can feel releived, I'm no sound engineer. You seem to be very allergic to them, so, don't worry i ain't one of them...

Not a kid either...i was a young teenager when they stopped making LPs. I'm more of the tape deck generation... When i was small, they had those music stores at the big malls with racks full of LPs. Was fun to pass in front of them but i knew my parents would never agree... And then, when i started with summer jobs, i had some $$ to spend, but the vinyl kingdom was slowly being replaced. LPs are nice but they deteriorate easily. You put one of them on a good turntable and, i don't know if it's me, or it happens to other people too, it feels that they release more power or energy in the sound, especially if you put them loud.

I just took a look on the canadian ebay for fun, looks like vinyls are available at big prices...
amazon.ca has brand new ones, more affordable. Maybe your grandma might like one...

I hope a new album comes this year, or early 2018 (looks more likely).

I'm getting nervous, though. Each album since Matias joined has been better and better than the last. I'm not sure how they can possibly top Eternal. My Eternal Dream and Man In The Mirror (as well as several others) have joined the ranks of the Stratovarius classics I still play over and over. Sooo fucking good.

Any news about the reissues? I have the impression that the plans are cancelled. EarMusic announced the Gamma Ray reissues almost 4 years ago and after the 4th re-release they stopped. The last 2 re-releases also offered nothing new. The same might happen with the Stratovarius reissues.
It's no surprise since selling cd's are not profitable anymore.

I got the Elements super-special-edition (ltd. to 10.000, mine is no. 3000 something) with 3 cds and 1 dvd in a store for only 5€!!!

Also, it's great that the new artwork for Destiny features a woman reminiscent of she who was included on the original Destiny cover, but with her emerging from within a water sphere that upon closer inspection appears to be an eye, symbolically appropriate for the incorporation of VISIONS of Destiny as part of the re-release.